On the day the prince turned
by MrsRegulusBlack123
Summary: On the day the Prince turned sixteen years old, he realized something.


**Disclaimer: I don't own Katekyo Hitman Reborn**

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_On the day the prince was born_, a big party was thrown by the King of his kingdom in order to celebrate the birth of his heir.

Notice how the prince says his _heir_, and not his heir_s_. Because according to his Father, the second born child had been responsible for the death of the love of his life, his queen and wife. They had loved each other dearly, but even love couldn't stop the inevitable, and in the end, she had been unable to handle the strain of delivering two children. Two new lives were gained that day, but one was also lost.

That day was also the day on which the prince received his name. _Belphegor_, because he never was his son in the King's eyes. He was nothing but a monster- a murderer. Because what else but a _demon_ could a child that had killed his own mother be?

_On the day the prince turned one year old, _he said his first words. The King only spared him a glance before returning to his paperwork. The prince's brother didn't say his first words until four weeks later, but that time the King made sure to throw a small party where he boasted and told everyone about it.

_On the day the prince turned two years old, _he told his father he was afraid of the monster under his bed. The King locked him in his room for two days, ignoring the young child's cries and pleas and words of "Father, please, I'm scared".

The prince never complained about dark shadows again after that, even though they still scared him- maybe even more than before.

_On the day the prince turned three years old, _he found a baby mink in the castle's gardens. It licked his nose as the prince knelt down to get a better look at it. Giggling in delight, he decided to keep the animal.

_On the day the prince turned four years old, _Rasiel found out about his pet mink. They spent the whole day playing with it and his brother even made it a little crown. It was the most fun he had had with his brother in long, long time.

_On the day the prince turned five years old, _Rasiel accidentally let it slip to the King that Bel had a mink in his room. Neither of them ever saw the mink again after that. The Prince didn't forgive his brother, even as the latter spent nearly the whole night outside his bedroom door, trying to apologize.

It wasn't very long before the siblings, once each other's favourite company, couldn't even be in the same room without fighting.

_On the day the prince turned six years old, _he managed to convince his father to buy him a set of knives. He immediately fell in love with the curved silver blades, so sharp and unpredictable, so deadly. It didn't start out as anything more than simple fooling around, but soon the Prince was chucking around knives and hitting targets with ease. Rasiel tried it too- but he didn't have that natural skill Belphegor possessed.

That was the day on which the Prince discovered there was something he was better at than his brother- and he loved it.

_On the day the prince turned seven years old, _Rasiel fell down a flight of stairs during one of their now nearly daily fights. The fall broke his arm.

The Prince still remembers the fury in the King's eyes when he stormed into his bedroom later that day, just having heard the news. He had expected the scolding, and the words- even though they stung- didn't surprise him. What he hadn't seen coming, was the king striking him.

The force of the slap threw him to the ground, silver coronet clattering on the floor as tears gathered in the corners of his eyes.

He cried himself to sleep that night. He hadn't asked for this. He hadn't asked to be born a demon or a devil's child.

_On the day the Prince turned eight years old, _Prince The Ripper was born.

He remembers the screams, the blood, the adrenaline, the rush of pure euphoria. He cut and slashed and killed that day, and all the while he grinned.

They had always called him a demon and the devil's child growing up, the servants, his brother, his father. On that day he showed them a demon, a devil. And it was them that had made him that way.

There was nothing left for him in that place, so the Prince left. About a month later, he knocked on the doors of the Varia castle, bloodied and still grinning.

_On the day the Prince turned nine years old, _Lussuria asked him about his eyes. The Prince refused to tell him.

_On the day the Prince turned ten years old, _he tried alcohol for the first time.

It was well into the early morning hours and Varia had all been gathered in the living room, some tipsy, others completely smashed already as a few bottles of booze and half-empty glasses lay scattered all around. The Prince had been unable to sleep so he joined them.

Curiosity led him to take a sip from the vodka next to Levi, but he spit it back out almost immediately. Unfortunately, Squalo had been sitting next to him.

_On the day the Prince turned eleven years old, _he got wounded on a mission for the first time. That was the day the Varia realized just how twisted their youngest member actually was.

The amount of paperwork that followed to cover up the mess is something none of them really like to think about.

_On the day the Prince turned twelve years old, _he met a girl while out on a mission in Russia. She had rosy cheeks and pretty blue eyes and her smile was contagious. She could've lived- he recons it would've been a long and happy life, with a husband and children and grandchildren... but he was an assassin, and she'd been at the wrong place at the wrong time. She saw things she shouldn't have.

As he looked down at her, knife ready to take her life, he felt tears run down his cheeks.

All he could do, was make sure it was quick and painless.

_On the day the Prince turned thirteen years old, _the Varia got smashed again, this time the Prince joined in.

He's pretty sure he let some things he'd never told anyone else slip that day, things about his life before the Varia, before he was an assassin. Before Prince The Ripper.

The Varia never mentioned any it- family and what had been before were sore subjects for everyone. They didn't pity him though and it didn't change the way they looked at him, and he was grateful for that.

_On the day the Prince turned fourteen years old, _he showed his teammates his eyes for the first time.

Blue.

_On the day the Prince turned fifteen years old, _he met a boy while in France. It didn't strike him as important back then, but unbeknownst to him, in a bit more than a year, they would meet again, and the child would be offered a choice.

Varia or Kokuyo.

_On the day the Prince turned sixteen years old, _he realized something.

He was content. Happy.

It wasn't perfect, and they were a strange bunch. Some of the strangest out there probably.

A man with a drinking problem, a proud man that shouted to cover the silence, a broken man that kept them all together, a loyal man, a baby and a twisted prince. It was hardly fairytale material.

They were all damaged and broken in their own ways, and they all knew it- bits and pieces of each other's lives were enough to tell.

They all had their fears and their pasts, always there at the end of the day. They were misfits, and that's why they fit in so well together.

They were, in the strangest sense of the word, a family. Each other's family. Substituting for the one they either never had or had ruined their lives for them. They kept each other together, kept each other going.

And as long as they were there, they would keep doing so.


End file.
